Patna, June 05: Congress president Sonia Gandhi's offer to like-minded parties for forging a coalition to defeat the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre today appeared to have borne fruit with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ramvilas Paswan expressing willingness to join hands with the Congress to unseat the NDA from power but ruled out any pre-poll alliance. "My party is for unseating the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre and RJD ministry in Bihar. LJP will extend support to the Congress in government formation at the Centre, if it is in a position to do so after the next Lok Sabha polls", Paswan said.

He was addressing a gathering to commemorate the Sampoorna Kranti Divas, the day when legendary Jayaprakash Narayan had given the call for a total revolution while leading a students movement in the early 1970s that led to the fall of Indira Gandhi government and installation of first non-Congress regime in Delhi.

"We will fight the next Lok Sabha election and the Vidhan Sabha poll in Bihar on our own, but will support any non-BJP combination which is in a position to form its government at the Centre," he said ruling out the possibility of backing Laloo Prasad Yadav's RJD in forming a ministry in Bihar.

Supporting the BJP has been the biggest mistake of my career, he said adding "my party is opposed to Laloo's RJD continuing to rule Bihar. Still, we will support the Congress, backing Laloo in Bihar, and in forming a government at the Centre as we feel BJP's communal agenda will ruin the nation."

He accused the RJD government in Bihar of having created a fear psychosis among the minorities in the name of BJP to force them to vote for that party and maintained that the Muslims backed Laloo to buy peace with the party in government.

Bureau Report